Freshman Democrat Knocks Down ‘Completely False’ First Paragraph of New York Post Hunter Biden Laptop Story During Fiery Hearing

Freshman Democrat Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) tussled briefly with the Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Rep. James Comer (R-KY) during Wednesday’s hearing on Twitter’s temporary suspension of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story, which Goldman explained began with a factual error in its very first paragraph.

“Let’s talk about the so-called Twitter files, which my Republican colleagues seem to think are God’s gift to journalism. In one about the Hunter Biden laptop, the author says that every single fact in the New York Post story was accurate,” Goldman, a former MSNBC contributor, began.

“And Chairman Comer, I notice you blew up the cover of that New York Post story, which I appreciate you doing that because I’d like to dig into this article,” he continued, adding:

The very first paragraph says Hunter Biden introduced his father to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company. That is false. 100% false.

“Is the gentleman sure about that?” interjected Comer.

“Yes, in fact, I am sure about that. And as the lead counsel in the first impeachment investigation, we proved that he was actually fired because he was not prosecuting corruption, not that he was fired because he was prosecuting corruption,” Goldman explained as Comer interrupted.

“Corruption at the president’s sons company? Will the gentlemen yield? Corruption of the president’s sons company?” jumped in Comer as the two speak over each other.

“I’d like to reclaim my time,” demanded Goldman.

“Gentleman is recognized,” Comer replied ending the back and forth.

“The fact that Joe Biden fired, consistent with U.S. policy in every single European country, the prosecutor general in Ukraine, because he did not prosecute corruption, including at companies like Burisma, has been proven over and over and over,” Goldman added, concluding:

And if you want to know who actually prosecuted Burisma, Chairman Comer, you should talk to the British authorities because they were the ones who were prosecuting Burisma and they couldn’t get any cooperation from the Ukrainian prosecutor general. So that’s why he was fired. So right off the top, the very first paragraph of this so-called bombshell story is completely false.

Goldman’s claims have indeed been widely reported on and the so-called “Biden-Ukraine conspiracy theory” has been widely debunked.

The New York Post story in question, as Goldman noted, begins:

Hunter Biden introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company, according to emails obtained by The Post.

This claim was widely pushed by then-President Donald Trump and his allies ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

USA Today explained in October of 2019, “But sources ranging from former Obama administration officials to an anti-corruption advocate in Ukraine say the official, Viktor Shokin, was ousted for the opposite reason Trump and his allies claim.”

“It wasn’t because Shokin was investigating a natural gas company tied to Biden’s son; it was because Shokin wasn’t pursuing corruption among the country’s politicians, according to a Ukrainian official and four former American officials who specialized in Ukraine and Europe,” added USA Today.

The same set of facts was widely verified in reporting in outlets spanning Axios to the BBC.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN2